AP honors Times-Gazette’s coverage of Hastings investigation

Abernathy wins first place for reporting

Staff and wire report

Gary Abernathy, right, publisher and editor of The Times-Gazette, receives the first place award for Best Investigative Reporting from Eva Parziale, regional director for the Associated Press during ceremonies Sunday in Columbus.

Gary Abernathy, publisher and editor of The Times-Gazette, was honored Sunday at the annual Ohio Associated Press Media Editors luncheon with the first place award in Division I for Best Investigative Reporting for his work last year covering the case against Hillsboro Mayor Drew Hastings.

The award was made during ceremonies in Columbus honoring outstanding achievements in journalism during 2016. The award was based on the body of work Abernathy produced about the Hastings case throughout the year, including news stories, columns and editorials.

The Hastings case began in December 2015, first with a civil case filed against the mayor by five Hillsboro residents, followed a few hours later the same day by search warrants being served at the city building as part of a criminal investigation.

The case dominated local news throughout 2016, and also became a state and national story. Hastings was eventually indicted last July on four felony charges – two counts of theft based on his use of a city dumpster for personal debris, one count related to an allegation of forgery in regard to a $500 rebate he had received on a vacant property registration, and one count of election falsification based on whether he was a legal resident of Hillsboro.

When the case came to trial in November, a judge threw out two of the charges, and a jury acquitted Hastings of the remaining counts.

In announcing the award, contest judges commented, “Wow. Great in-depth reporting. It details an impressive amount of facts and paints a vivid picture of what appears to be either mayoral corruption or police revenge.”

Coverage of the case included examining the many search warrants and affidavits that were filed throughout the investigation, conducting numerous interviews during the course of the year as events developed, consulting with attorneys not connected to the case to better understand legal maneuvers that were happening, and reviewing the hundreds of pages of discovery evidence eventually filed in the case.

The reporting included several stories detailing various events that occurred during the probe, which included warrants for records served at the mayor’s stepdaughter’s school, subpoenas for water usage at two residences owned by Hastings, authorities confiscating the mayor’s cell phone and serving warrants for personal computers belonging to his administrative assistant, and a late-night search of his Hillsboro residence to document personal items of clothing, kitchen and bathroom appliances and children’s toys – a search conducted after Hastings’ visiting father-in-law was ordered out of the home.

“The Hastings investigation was unprecedented in a number of ways,” said Abernathy. “It was necessary to separate the legitimate concerns that existed about some of the mayor’s actions from other motivations to remove him from office, along with examining the way the investigation was initially handled by the police department, the providing of evidence obtained in a criminal probe to private citizens for the purpose of filing a civil case against Hastings, and the methods of the special prosecutor from the state auditor’s office who was eventually appointed to handle the case.”

Abernathy also won second place Sunday in the category of Best Columnist.

The Times-Gazette is part of Civitas Media, and a total of 11 Civitas Media newspapers won 31 AP awards Sunday. All told, 67 daily newspapers across Ohio submitted 2,084 entries in the contest, which featured news and sports stories, features, editorials, columns, graphics and photos from 2016.

Following is a list of all winners from Sunday, with Civitas publications in bold.

Best Special Sports Section: 1, The Canton Repository, “Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinees 2017”; 2, The (Elyria) Chronicle-Telegram, “High School Football Preview”; 3, The Canton Repository, “2017 High School Football Preview.”

Best Public Service: 1, The (Toledo) Blade, “Ohioans View on Trade Agreements, Jobs, the Economy and Who Should be President”; 2, The Columbus Dispatch, “Heroin’s Hold on Us”; 3, Akron Beacon Journal, “Heroin — Ending the Silence.”

Gary Abernathy, right, publisher and editor of The Times-Gazette, receives the first place award for Best Investigative Reporting from Eva Parziale, regional director for the Associated Press during ceremonies Sunday in Columbus.

http://aimmedianetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/33/2017/05/web1_AP-Eva-Gary-5-21-17-1.jpgGary Abernathy, right, publisher and editor of The Times-Gazette, receives the first place award for Best Investigative Reporting from Eva Parziale, regional director for the Associated Press during ceremonies Sunday in Columbus.